ABOUT ME
Hi, I’m Lael (they/them)!
I used to be heavily invested in both drinking and shrinking (dieting). For a while, I thought they were helping me — and the truth of the matter is, they actually had been – both had been acting as coping mechanisms. But they were coping mechanisms with consequences I was no longer willing to live with. Plus, I was finally ready to face what I had been using them to cope with.
I parted ways with alcohol without identifying as an alcoholic (a label that just didn’t work for me personally). I mention that because if labels work for you, great! But you don’t have to identify as an alcoholic or as having a “full blown” eating disorder to get curious about how your coping tools are no longer serving you.
As a recovery coach, I’m dedicated to showing people what’s possible when you stop playing small, and reclaim your life from the cycles that keep you stuck.
You deserve a chance at your best possible life, the compassion of a Body Trust® approach, and the comfort of stigma-free recovery. I will give you bullshit-free support that is rooted in kindness and sprinkled with humor as you move from merely coping to feeling your spirit come alive.
My Mission
During my journey, despite meeting so many people who find themselves at this intersection of struggling with alcohol and with disordered eating & body image issues, the resources that spoke to both were few and far between. I wondered how an experience that was so common still managed to lack meaningful and compassionate support.
So often recovery can feel like playing “whack-a-mole,” where pushing back against one way of coping can activate another.
As whole human beings, it never made sense to me to compartmentalize our struggles — but so often, these struggles are depicted as if they rarely overlap.
I also found that a lot of the cultural narrative around addiction and eating disorders reinforces the idea that only people with the most “extreme,” life-ruining presentations needed and deserved help. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Plenty of us — most of us, in fact! — can struggle in our relationship with substances and with our bodies for a long time. But we shouldn’t have to wait until our lives fall apart to be worthy of support. How well we’ve adapted to the chaos and trauma should not dictate the timeline on which we receive care.
My mission is to bring my expertise, empathy, and sense of humor to folks who wonder if there’s another way of being, but don’t know how to find it in a culture that often encourages the same behaviors that are perpetuating our pain.
As I know I’m not the only one for whom drinking intersects with disordered eating & body image issues, I choose to focus on both areas. But I leave it to those who want to work with me whether they choose to focus on one or the other, or the two in combination.
My Certifications
In addition to my lived experience, I am a Certified Professional Recovery Coach, Certified Body Trust® Provider, Certified Diet Recovery Coach, Certified Weight Neutral Coach, Certified Professional Coach, and Certified Peer Counselor. I am also both trauma-informed and IFS-informed.
As a Certified Professional Recovery Coach and Certified Peer Counselor, I am trained to support clients recovering from alcohol and substance use, using a strength-based, stigma-free approach that puts the person at the center of their recovery.
As a Certified Body Trust® Provider, I am part of a community of specialists who are advocating for and/or providing compassionate, weight-inclusive models of care. Body Trust® is both a radical paradigm shift for helping professionals and a specialized, practical intervention for healing body shame and disordered eating that addresses internalized weight stigma and moves towards resilience and liberation from individual, cultural and systemic body oppression. Certified Body Trust Providers are multi-disciplinary professionals who have completed a rigorous and intensive training. They are dedicated to speaking on behalf of justice and inclusion. To become certified, Body Trust® Providers agree to not promote dieting, specific food philosophies, or promise weight loss.
As a Certified Weight Neutral Coach, I am trained to support clients facing a variety of body image concerns, as well as the additional systemic challenges faced by clients of size.
As a Certified Diet Recovery Coach, I am trained to work with clients who are struggling to let go of diet mentality, diet-binge cycling, restrictive behaviors around food, and other eating-related challenges.
As a Certified Professional Coach, I am trained to partner with clients in moving from their present situation to a future they desire – one that is aligned with their personal motivations and values.
I have over 2,500 hours of professional training. That said, I view all accreditation with a critical eye, and believe my clients are ultimately the experts on their own experience.
My Identity and Beliefs
I am a queer and nonbinary Gen Xer, and someone who benefits from the privileges associated with being white, as well as currently being able-bodied and in a straight-size body.
I have found, and you may as well, that the more we reclaim our own bodies, the fiercer our desire to fight for the rights of ALL bodies, and the stronger we feel in our ability to do so.
As part of my ongoing commitment to providing competent coaching to people of many identities and experiences, I am in community with other providers who I may seek consultation or supervision from, should I be unsure at any point of how best to support you.
If you have any questions about my ability to support you, I encourage you to ask them during our free discovery call (and, should we work together, throughout our time together).
Get to Know Me
Click here to book your free discovery call, click here to read my FAQ, or dive deeper and click here to listen to my podcast appearances.